It may be farewell, but not goodbye
The massive changes in Hong Kong education came to a natural turning point last month, with the departure of former permanent secretary for education Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, the woman who has steered education reforms so staunchly since 1998.
As she noted, much of the groundwork for the reforms had now been set. Now was the time to hand over the reins to a fresh person to steer the implementation.
Many bitter battles over the nature of the reforms are now over. In the local system, big issues have been resolved, such as how students should be selected for primary and secondary school, the language in which they should be taught and the shape of senior secondary schooling that, at last, will give access to all students, instead of the minority today.
Change has also spelt upheaval in international schools, from the leadership battle that overtook Hong Kong International School in 2004 to the dragging of the English Schools Foundation into the post-colonial era following stinging criticism of its operations. Oysters and wine on the menu of the ESF executive education lunch, along with the more lavish benefits of its teachers, now serve only to pique the memory, not the tongue.
The changes embracing all levels of education in Hong Kong, often mirrored by changes elsewhere, have been intriguing for the education journalist to observe.
Over the past decade I have taken enormous interest in Hong Kong's education reforms - which are so much more daring in scope than others have attempted - from their initial inception shortly after the handover until now. Six years ago I created this section of the South China Morning Post as the forum to air all the issues related to education in the era of change, in the interests of children and young people who deserve the best that adults - parents, academics, bureaucrats and politicians - can deliver.
There are many challenges ahead in the implementation of change, in particular whether the culmination of reforms - the so-called 3+3+4 system - really will deliver a radically-different outcome to the teacher-centred, exam-driven system of old. New battles loom, from the future of the Hong Kong Institute of Education to the introduction of vouchers for kindergartens.
The transition from intense, often fraught, discussion of change to the practicalities of implementation - however successful or inadequate they may be - has been the time that I too have reflected on change, and decided to join the action in education, not just to write about it.
This is my last issue editing Education Post. I am moving to the British Council, as director of education services, to help build positive links and joint activities of mutual benefit between Hong Kong and the UK - at school, university and system level.
This may be my farewell to Education Post but it is not a goodbye to Hong Kong education - just change and a new beginning.
